still raging why do you think it all happened on such a scale. that washed out so. well known among those are the key reason for all this of course is the record breaking heat we had in central russia years along the volga river which caused forest fires in quite a significant scale those fires could have been prevented to a certain extent but only to an extent through timely fire alerts under such climatic conditions the key goal is to extinguish fires within one hour from them starting or at least on the same day. because the fire is not contained in six hours squall winds occur that make the situation critical the fire becomes either a running crown fire or a high acreage ground fire with winds of up to twenty to twenty five meters per second even thirty meters per second in some regions forest fires turn into fire storms and no fire service in the world has been able to deal with things like that so far the situation now on the contrary to the second part of your question about fires is far better now than at the same time last year and the previous years

perhaps this is due to the fact all of these are mobilized and alerts in the wake of the great events of late july and august speaking of lessons we can learn from all this we sure are reviewing many postulates and dogmas we used to have before we are considering changes upon the president's orders to russia's forest legislation how exactly did that forest legislation prevent the authorities from fighting fires . well to begin with this function has been delegated to the level of municipalities federal entities and forest department along with fire safety and fire control and forests federal entities were supposed to handle all that work tenders and choose businesses and organizations to protect forests from fires but unfortunately that work was not done well enough in some regions authorities gave contracts to businesses that had neither the equipment nor the staff nor the experience to prevent forest fires in my circle around this whole. thing. can you

say that your ministry did everything it could to fight the forest fires are easter something you're displeased with yeah. i think we on our part to use as much effort and equipment as possible i can say thank god that through all those years against all odds we kept developing new equipment new aircraft and firefighting systems that helped us a great deal in putting out the forest fires it is perhaps the first time that the entire system of the federal firefighting service has been fully engaged in combating forest fires our zone of responsibility was in residential areas we usually work in towns and villages but this time we had to quickly learn previously unfamiliar ways to talk to high acreage fires especially crown fires when i previously unfamiliar. that's what i began with it's not our function it's the function of the federal forestry agency but when the first fires broke out wasn't present informed that wasn't he told that perhaps your ministry should be involved in fighting the fires. when the situation became critical the president signed

a decree that declared a state of emergency that means all federal forces and the ministry of emergency first of all are engaged this is why it took us just two days to establish a task force of nearly one hundred sixty thousand people and almost twenty six thousand units of equipment we also created a large aerial task force with up to fifty aircraft operating simultaneously after all on the third or the fourth day we had begun putting out more fires than there were new ones up to four hundred or five hundred new fires would break out every day and in addition to fighting new fires we have to keep fighting the existing ones so i think the fact that we managed to save some four thousand six hundred residential areas with a total population of more than half a million is a great achievement for our firefighters volunteers local residents and the military who are also someone to help all the people who stood up against the elements in this emergency of course we analyze all our work we exchange experience and advice with our western colleagues i would like everyone to realize that such does. as

a knock nation specific catastrophe is no no borders customs nationalities or religion this is perhaps the most important lesson we should learn from this situation or should we should learn to consolidate our efforts to join forces to give a helping hand to each other and to do our job efficiently but let's have the power with so few right more and more disasters touch not only one country or region but sometimes whole continents is there any close warning system how often do you want your foreign counterparts interact with each other more lead to. last for five years here in russia we didn't ask for any help but we didn't reject it when it was offered we are grateful to our foreign colleagues who came from one thousand countries to provide help and support it is essential and i point out that once again that a disaster knows no borders or nationalities are top priority safety and human lives this is the key to us and we got from the situation is that it is not very nice to serve most disasters in russia tend to occur in summer what do they merge

and says services have to be ready for in winter is a woman. in winter we prepare for the spring we have lots of work in winter as well as the country is very big a huge part of russia is in quake prone areas we have several thousand ice river crossings in winter there are places where thousands of trucks across rivers carrying loads of supplies for the north and remote areas of siberia however the key job we do is to handle serious accidents in the energy sector in heating and generally in sustainment systems if critical situations occur speaking of a work in general there's much effort underway now to help kyrgyzstan and we're also providing help to afghanistan and our helicopters and the miners now work in serbia our helicopters are there to help fight forest fires in fact of the last decade we have worked in greece serbia montenegro macedonia italy portugal and many other countries in serbia for example we are demining the grounds for the future south stream gas pipeline it's a big job we're clearing the fields of shells. arms and mines from world war two

and the one thousand nine hundred ninety eight zero bombardments of serbia whether it's less at the truth but if we look at it in more global terms there is an impression that natural disasters have become more frequent in russia and elsewhere around the world wildfires are followed by floods and floods are followed by tsunamis what she was prepared for just going to get worse and worse. as you may know the number of natural disasters has indeed increased over the past twenty years and this increase is significant it's not just my outside impression indeed this is research carried out by analysts the number of natural disasters is not just up by turkey or fifty percent it's several times more than that everybody knows that here i'd like to warn you against two things first there's always a great desire to use the situation for political purposes this should be avoided the environmental serious politicized so much in russia that it's impossible to see when it's true or when the truth is exploited for political purposes so where

citrus do you think that global warming really exists. you know the climate has changed we can see that just think snow has become common in places where we've never seen it before we see that the permafrost zone keeps melting further we can see the plants that used to bloom once a year are now blossoming two or even three times soon it's going to be more than six months that we've been working on the northern sea route previously the coast ice used to receive for a period from seventy to ninety days today the northern sea route is free from ice for one hundred two hundred fifty days and ships can sail freely in clearwater is this also tells us something firstly i think that the country's leadership under president have made the correct and well wait a decision to carry out serious detailed analysis and secondly our president called for the creation of a global response system to man made an emergency disasters after the gulf of mexico oil disaster and after critical situations in pakistan and in russia french president nicolas sarkozy made similar proposals and that's something we've been.

about for over ten years that there is a need for a european emergency response system that would use europe's most advanced technologies the last one has done the one in particular and what she would be doing a noun phrase ample last year or so a number of men they disasters it all because of the infrastructure built in soviet days that is worn out to our way to expect more manmade disasters. of course we're working on that too i wouldn't so ambiguously claim that we inherited all the equipment from soviet days and that it's all up salit and is about to start falling apart piece by piece naturally things become old and need to be modernized but we're doing a lot if we're speaking about manmade accidents our country has adopted a major program for the development of power engineering it provides for the creation of a new energy generating capacity and renovating the old ones created in the former u.s.s.r. this is a big and serious project which we're implementing is a large atomic energy program is underway it's designed to replace soviet nuclear power units the period between two thousand and two and two thousand and three was

quite difficult and dangerous about time equipment that was already beyond repair was reaching the end of its service life and we have to closely watch all these processes but we're moving forward the countries developing and getting modernized russian legislation is being upgraded a new state of the art technologies are being introduced and safety technologies should develop either simultaneously with the new technologies or even slightly ahead of them to maintain safety and transport and in industries safety matters should be a priority all the rest comes after that but when we know it as you've mentioned it all spill in the gulf of mexico it grew up the global headlines rochelle so extracts huge amounts of oil not only on the surface but also on the sea shelf do we have a system in place at the moment to deal with such accidents. you know we've been closely watching developments in the gulf of mexico naturally our oil extracting companies have also been watching of course they can learn from such an. and try to

apply it here as for our oil workers i would say that these questions are not the last for them because they actively learn from foreign experience no wonder that they win contests and biddings for oil extraction no wonder they win contests and biddings for oil extraction the construction of refineries and other facilities necessary for the production of oil and gas that's why i think that this experience is certainly tragic on the one hand but absolutely unique on the other hand i hope that such accidents will never be repeated and if they are then we can be ready for them because it is an important to opinion polls you've been the most popular minister for the past few years why do you think that is. i don't think it's right when an emergency minister is the most popular minister in the country to be used but i believe that artists writers culture and foreign ministers should be the most popular figures whereas in emergencies minister should largely stay unemployed thank you for this interview.

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the headlines on r.t. afghanistan's opium production is slashed in homme but its value goes up as police prisoners among those. u.n. report says the decline in supply is due to a disease affecting the country's poppy fields. blocks nato efforts in afghanistan by shutting down a major supply route it's apparently in response to the killing of its soldiers by u.s. . alliance denies the claims and has begun its own investigation. smaller nations are left to empty seats at the close of the un general assembly in new york questions over its ability to global issues the us has been criticized for being a host as the majority of its media along with those considered the most important

speakers. and those top stories for the next though it's the latest from the world of sports. hello there welcome to the sport and these the headline. being start from the spanish giants barcelona in the champions league. while discards in the belief home support will help them in tonight's europa league. and another drug scandal rocks cycling is tour de france champion alberto contador test positive. and stop the champions league where rubin managed to hold barcelona to a one one draw in his and last night and almost snatched a last minute winner both goals came from the penalty spot christian gave it to be

in the lead after thirty minutes after danielle. veer levelled after an hour. in the air then later on martin is still his head there it passed his post so one one it finished leading the russians third in the group behind bars and surprise leaders f.c. copenhagen the night cops elsewhere some are left to you have tricks or into my land bremen for neil about puts the defending champions on top of group a just behind them on goal difference at tottenham we've got a four one win side f.c. twenty one man public chain connecting twice from the spot for it had rafael van de velde sent off he got tottenham's first but also missed the penalty penalty or gareth bale got the last goal of the night. for two of the first two but it will. show you that you couldn't give him so he got. through on the second one. you know care of. what we got to play and penalty to food the bullet traveled

a long way but i think it was a soft penalty but given. it was nothing wrong with the very end of our school leaver and it was a great goal of bell at the end of main interest to finish. in group c. rangers and manchester united share the lead there rangers got a one nil win over the spall while united got three points away to valencia courtesy of a late breakaway goal from. united executing their game plan according to sir alex . things that are of concern recently has been the who's ingalls who've been very curious to friending to know we had to ensure that we defended probably because it's been a concern and therefore we did so in the position of the ball. voyagers but for positions i'm finding the french side leon who are eighteenth in

their domestically told the greek they've got a moral boosting three one victory over television shall hear a second following that tina win over benfica. tonight it is the turn of the europa league with an eight hour after their second win and take on a key athens and simply moscow to scarface part of prague at the him key arena those sides also hoping to keep the one hundred percent record as constant the top of reports. in their first match to his car triumph three nil as we say hello sam with goals from cigna sheriff and the brace from wagner law since then the muscovites side continued their winning streak in the russian premier league claiming six points out of six scoring four goals and conceding none as for support of the big cooled out at three two victory at home to palermo in their first group match the team from the czech republic is currently second in their domestically

however to come an edge of their new tool is well known in russia for breaking down his opponent's tactics and it seems like the thirty nine year old coach is already well prepared for thursday's clash but watching over his own spartan as a disciplined team without any obvious weaknesses the czech team is a mixture of youth and experience with established key players as well as talented youngsters so the teams are very balanced in terms of age sparta play quality compact football they have a proper defense and good week players there are consistent challenge for any team . with just one lead a different sport in my twenty is their biggest cross city rivals spartak who completed dominated in tuesday's three nil home we know with julianna in the champions league but that victory could also motivate the red and blues who are desperate to perform better than their red and white photos angeleno won the battle for the place in the champions league after coming out to be two years in

a two legged struggle with sparta selden rivalry continues even if the teams are playing in different tournament but keep played this down and i don't think the match against julian a significant asp arthur had many injured and disqualified players elect seven players out of the starting eleven so it's hard to compare these teams if julie no one that means they were the stronger at the time. in thursday's match a lot will depend on loans are good and the russian infield has already planned how to break the deadlock. plus it will be hard to school because the visitors will choose a defensive style of play from the very start i refer slease to play carefully and not reset counterattack and secondly just to play our game and everything will be ok. with over two thirds of the russian premier league season and with the senate looking on course to be crowned champions third place to be concerned treating the force more european rather than domestic success and they may be in

a position to repeat the trend of two thousand and four when they won what was then do we fork up can spend in but above or. well also in the europa league there's a heavyweight clash between manchester city and eventis later this evening man city missing out on champions league football this season but nonetheless wanting to prove their worth in europe they won their first game against self spurred by eventis still after their first win following a draw against like bosnia and despite the rebuilding that's going on a city boss mancini thinks it will be a tough match. just to repeat. the change of manager they change a. lot of players but there was your grandfather's. war because you needed time to to be seen but it ended more would be a difficult game now one of the world's greatest football is the a gay marriage donna has been in moscow to promote

a child cancer charity but he's also taken the chance to say he wants his old job back as argentina she had led argentina to the quarter finals of the world cup but was then released as coach by the argentina football association after he refused to get rid of some of his backroom staff yesterday he was in the russian capital to promote the razor institute using his football skills to good effect and the opportunity to tell reporters why he wanted to coach his national side once more. i want to go back because i want revenge that's for sure but i'm very thankful to the players because we've reached a very good fifth place at the world cup we failed when germany crossed our way but no murder was done a great job at the world cup hopefully the great work will continue even further you get to continue with the whole remain the number one fear of the urgent time international. cycling has been rocked by another drug scandal three time tour de

france champion alberto contador has tested positive for a banned stimulant and has been suspended from the sport contador has admitted a small amount of clenbuterol was found in his system after one of the stages of this year's tour de france it's a stimulant that boosts the flow of oxygen in the bloodstream and the spaniard went on to win the yellow jersey for a third time he's now been suspended by the sport's governing body u.c.i. contador says he has been a victim of contamination but will face a two year ban if the use of them is confirmed. and i talk it has been another high profile homecoming and make a shell after the tee time stanley cup champion for just a council of signed a one year deal with what looks like a timely acquisition for the army man left wing at reed joins from the atlanta thrashers where he spent the last five seasons the thirty seven year old has already held his first training session with the club and hopes to rush into action on friday. travel to rookies you and could rely on calls love to help them chalk up

any their third win in nine games so far the shia were discarded in play on wednesday for matches took place across russia and beyond with the big. three one to go joint top with them and now means the better russian side still out there despite a seven four upset by you another day. better thrashing. by one on the road while rushing forward alexy models of net. goals number two hundred and two hundred one and the country's top flight as champions at bars and class track door three one at home. and will finish with gulf where preparations are continuing for the thirty eighth ryder cup in the atmosphere seems to be relaxed in the european camp despite the gloomy weather and the american team's negative stance following rory mcilroy comments about tiger woods rain delay the second practice round at the celtic manor is all but when he did stop there appeared to be more than one growing

boy coming out onto the greens and see what i mean his team mates paid the twenty one year old a tribute of sorts with his hairstyle the northern irishman might need their support there after american captain corey pavin suggested mccall roy could regret his comments about the world number one woods the fast rising european star had said the legendary american had lost his aura and pavan believes it could backfire mcilroy when the competition gets under way on friday but europe kept in montgomery was quick to play down the feat. if it does happen great. we look forward to that challenge and i'm sure rory would too and i'm sure tiger would too but a lot has been made of this. challenge if you like this is about a team not of individuals. and my team are set on gaining fourteen and a half points it doesn't matter who's playing who gets them. and that brings us to

the end of the sport fernando where he is coming up next.

she's available in. this photo.

as it could. be strong for us to become the. opium production in the value is rising as a result. police. are all among the by. pakistan blocks nato a. major supply route apparently in response to the killing of its soldiers. on board a. smaller nations are left to talk to empty seats at the close of the un general assembly in new york raising questions over its ability.

well it's good of you to join us this is r.t. live from moscow the u.n. says the global opium production has dropped by nearly half this year however it's nothing to do with the war on drugs but rather a puppy eating virus in afghanistan the world's largest exporter but the survey warns of any kind of victory over the killer crop. opium prices have nearly tripled while poppy fields are still the same size the heroin producing harvest is the main source of income for taliban militants and they retain a stronghold in the drug rich southern provinces of afghanistan despite having a massive nato effort and the drug issue is affecting the fight against crime and corruption that's because as artie's pulis reports many afghan police are among the attic. abdulrahim used to pay.